Mongolia: the Gobi, Karakorum and Terelj

1. Day 1: Arrive in Ulaanbaatar

   Chinggis Khaan International Airport to your hotel in Ulaanbaatar

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Ulaanbaatar
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Chinggis Khaan International Airport (UBN), which opened in 2021 in a valley about 50 km south of the city, where a driver meets you for the hour or so into Ulaanbaatar. Almost half of Mongolia's people live in the capital, spread along the Tuul River valley at about 1,350 m, with Soviet-era blocks, glass towers, Buddhist temples and districts of gers climbing the hills at its edges. If you land early, walk to Sukhbaatar Square, the wide square in front of Government Palace with its seated statue of Chinggis Khaan, a few minutes from the hotel. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing: how the ger camps work, what to pack in a soft bag for the Gobi flight, and which days are long in the vehicle. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner of Mongolian food, buuz dumplings, khuushuur and grilled meat, with vegetarian dishes on request.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Chinggis Khaan International Airport (UBN)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by about 4 pm to join the briefing; later arrivals are met and briefed the next morning.

   

2. Day 2: The Chinggis Khaan statue and Terelj

   Ulaanbaatar to Tsonjin Boldog, then Gorkhi-Terelj National Park and back

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ulaanbaatar
   Day 2 details

   We leave at 8:30 to clear the city traffic and drive about an hour east to Tsonjin Boldog, where a stainless-steel Chinggis Khaan sits on a horse 40 m tall above the open steppe. Stairs inside take you up through the horse and out onto its head, and the grassland runs out to the horizon in every direction. From there it is about an hour north into Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, a valley of larch forest and granite outcrops along the Terelj River. We stop at Turtle Rock, a boulder that looks like its name, then have lunch at a ger camp, a first look at how the camps work. In the afternoon walk up the stepped path to the Aryabal Meditation Temple for the view across the valley, or ride for an hour with local herders on their stocky Mongolian horses. We are back in Ulaanbaatar by about 5 pm, and the evening is free to eat where you like.

   Included

   • The Chinggis Khaan Equestrian Statue at Tsonjin Boldog, with the walk up to the horse's head
   • Gorkhi-Terelj National Park entry and Turtle Rock
   • Lunch at a ger camp in Terelj
   • The walk to the Aryabal Meditation Temple, or in its place an hour's horse ride with local herders

   Easier option: Skip the climb to Aryabal and stay at the ger camp with tea, or walk the level valley floor.

   More active option: Ride for about an hour with local herders in place of the temple walk; included, no riding experience needed.

   Free time: Evening free in Ulaanbaatar; dinner on your own

   Activity: The path up to Aryabal is steep in places, with steps.

   

3. Day 3: Fly to the Gobi, walk into Yolyn Am

   Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad by air, then Yolyn Am in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Yolyn Am
   Day 3 details

   After breakfast we drive to the airport for the flight south to Dalanzadgad, the capital of the South Gobi, about an hour and a half in the air. Flying saves the two days of driving across the Middle Gobi that most trips spend in the vehicle. Our 4x4s and drivers, sent down from Ulaanbaatar ahead of us, meet the plane, and we drive about an hour west to our ger camp at the foot of the Gurvan Saikhan mountains, the Three Beauties, for lunch and a rest. In the late afternoon, when the day visitors have gone and the heat is easing, we stop at the small natural history museum at the park gate, then walk into Yolyn Am, a gorge that narrows between steep rock walls with a stream along its floor. In the past ice lasted here well into summer; in recent warm years it has often melted by early summer. Look for ibex on the slopes and bearded vultures overhead, then dinner at camp under a very big sky.

   Included

   • Flight from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad (DLZ)
   • Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park entry and the natural history museum at the park gate
   • Late-afternoon walk into the Yolyn Am gorge with your guide
   • Lunch and dinner at the ger camp

   Easier option: Rest at camp after the flight and skip the gorge, or walk only the first part of the valley, which is wide and level, and wait by the stream.

   More active option: Carry on past the narrows to where the gorge opens out again, about an hour more on the same stony path.

   Activity: The drive figure covers Dalanzadgad to camp and the gorge; the morning transfer to the Ulaanbaatar airport is about an hour more. About 4 to 5 km on foot in and out of the gorge, on a stony path above 2,000 m. Domestic flights allow less baggage, usually about 15 kg in the hold; leave the rest at the Ulaanbaatar hotel.

   

4. Day 4: West to the Khongor dunes

   Yolyn Am to Khongoryn Els along the Gurvan Saikhan range

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Khongoryn Els
   Day 4 details

   Today is one of the three long days of the trip, and we say so plainly: about 190 km and five hours of driving, much of it on desert tracks. There is no shorter way to the dunes and no scheduled flight closer to them, and stopping halfway would mean a night in a place with nothing to see, so we break the day up instead. We leave at 8:30 after breakfast and follow the line of the mountains west across gravel plains, past herders' gers, camel herds and the odd lone well, with a stop every hour or so to stretch, take photos and swap seats. Lunch is a hot meal on the way, at a camp where one fits the route or set up by our crew with tables and chairs, never a box in the vehicle. By mid-afternoon the dunes rise ahead, a pale wall of sand along the foot of the mountains. We settle into our ger camp for two nights, and the evening is free to watch the light leave the sand.

   Included

   • Drive west along the Gurvan Saikhan range with stops for photos
   • Hot lunch on the way
   • Dinner at the ger camp by the dunes

   Easier option: There is no shorter way on this day. Take a front seat if you get car sick, stay in the vehicle at any stop you like, and rest at camp on arrival.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free at camp

   Activity: A long day on rough tracks, with no more than four guests per 4x4. Tell your guide if you get car sick, and we put you in a front seat.

5. Day 5: A day at the singing dunes

   Khongoryn Els, from a herding family to the crest at sunset

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Khongoryn Els
   Day 5 details

   No long drive today. Khongoryn Els runs for about 100 km along the foot of the mountains and rises to around 300 m at its highest, and when the wind is right the sand slides with a low hum that gives the dunes their local name, the singing sands. In the cool of the morning we visit a camel-herding family nearby to see how they live: the ger, the milking, the Bactrian camels that still carry a family's home when it moves to new pasture. Then you ride a camel for about an hour along the foot of the dunes with a herder leading. The middle of the day is free at camp, when the sun is strongest: read, sleep or drink salty milk tea in the shade. In the late afternoon we drive a few minutes to the highest part of the dunes and climb. It takes about an hour in soft sand, slow and steep near the top, and from the crest at sunset you see the sand sea on one side and the plain on the other.

   Included

   • Visit to a camel-herding family
   • Camel ride of about an hour along the dunes
   • Sunset climb of Khongoryn Els with your guide
   • All meals at the ger camp

   Easier option: Stay at the foot of the dunes for sunset, or climb only part of the way to the first ridge.

   More active option: Climb to the highest crest and walk along the ridge before sliding down the steep face.

   Free time: Middle of the day free at camp

   Activity: The climb is about an hour in soft sand, steep near the crest. Bring sunglasses and a buff against blowing sand.

6. Day 6: Across the Gobi to the Flaming Cliffs

   Khongoryn Els to Bayanzag (the Flaming Cliffs)

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bayanzag
   Day 6 details

   The second long day: about 180 km and five hours of driving, mostly on desert tracks, north-east across the Gobi. As on day 4, the alternative would be a night in between with nothing to see, so we leave at 8:30 and break the drive with a stop every hour or so and a hot lunch on the way. We reach our ger camp near Bayanzag in the afternoon, with time to rest before the light softens. Then we walk the rim of the Flaming Cliffs, red and orange sandstone that glows in the low sun. In 1922 and 1923 expeditions from the American Museum of Natural History, led by Roy Chapman Andrews, found here the first dinosaur eggs recognised by science, along with Protoceratops and the first Velociraptor. Your guide shows you where the finds were made, and fragments of fossil bone still turn up in the sand. We stay until the sun goes down, then drive back to camp for dinner.

   Included

   • Drive across the Gobi with stops for photos
   • Hot lunch on the way
   • The Flaming Cliffs at Bayanzag from late afternoon to sunset, with your guide
   • Dinner at the ger camp

   Easier option: There is no shorter way on this day. Take a front seat if you get car sick, stay in the vehicle at any stop you like, and rest at camp on arrival.

   Activity: About 1 to 2 km on the cliff rim, on crumbly ground; stay back from the edges. Fossils must be left where they lie: removing them is illegal.

   

7. Day 7: Saxaul forest, then north to Ongi

   Bayanzag to the Ongi River and the ruins of Ongiin Khiid

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Ongi
   Day 7 details

   For anyone who wants it, a dawn walk back to the cliffs while they are empty and the colour comes back with the first sun. Sunrise is between about 5:30 and 6:30 depending on the month, so this is the one early start of the trip, and it is optional. After breakfast we stop at the saxaul forest near Bayanzag, a stand of twisted, drought-hardy trees that hold the sand together, then drive north for about four hours across the edge of the Gobi to the Ongi River. Lunch is at our ger camp by the river. In the afternoon we walk the ruins of Ongiin Khiid, two monasteries on either bank that were among the largest in Mongolia until they were destroyed in the purges of the late 1930s, when monks were killed and temples pulled down across the country. Since 1990 a small community of monks has come back and rebuilt a temple among the ruins. A small museum tells the story, and the riverbank is good for an evening walk.

   Included

   • Optional dawn walk at the Flaming Cliffs
   • The saxaul forest near Bayanzag
   • The ruins of Ongiin Khiid and the site museum, with your guide
   • Lunch and dinner at the ger camp

   Easier option: Sleep in instead of the dawn walk and join the group at breakfast.

   More active option: Join the dawn walk at the cliffs before breakfast.

   Free time: Evening free by the river

   Activity: The ruins are spread over rough, stony ground; about 2 km on foot in all.

8. Day 8: Arvaikheer, Shankh and on to Karakorum

   Ongi to Arvaikheer, then Shankh Monastery and Kharkhorin

   • Drive about 5.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kharkhorin
   Day 8 details

   The longest day, and the reason for the night at Ongi: about 300 km and five and a half hours of driving to reach Karakorum. There is no shorter way out of the Gobi to the Orkhon valley, and this route puts the rough part first and the paved road last. We leave at 8 am on tracks north to Arvaikheer, the capital of Ovorkhangai province, and stop there around midday for a sit-down lunch in town. From Arvaikheer the road is paved. An hour or so on we stop at Shankh Monastery, one of the oldest in Mongolia, founded in the 17th century and linked with Zanabazar, the first head of Mongolian Buddhism and its greatest sculptor; it was closed under communism and is active again. The land turns green as we drop into the Orkhon valley, and we reach our ger camp near Kharkhorin, the town beside the old capital, in the late afternoon. Dinner is at camp, and the evening is free.

   Included

   • Sit-down lunch in Arvaikheer
   • Shankh Monastery with your guide
   • Dinner at the ger camp near Kharkhorin

   Easier option: There is no shorter way on this day. Take a front seat if you get car sick, stay in the vehicle at any stop you like, and rest at camp on arrival.

   Free time: Evening free at camp

   Activity: The longest drive of the trip, about half on tracks; we stop every hour or so.

9. Day 9: Karakorum and Erdene Zuu

   Kharkhorin: Erdene Zuu, the Karakorum Museum and the hill above the valley

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kharkhorin
   Day 9 details

   We are at Erdene Zuu when it opens, before the day visitors arrive from Ulaanbaatar. Founded in 1585 partly from the stones of Karakorum, it was the first great Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, and its long white wall is lined with stupas, 108 by tradition. Most of its temples were destroyed in the late 1930s; a few survived as a museum, and it has been a working monastery again since 1990. With a local guide we walk the temples and, if they are sitting, listen to the monks chant. Then the Karakorum Museum, where a scale model shows the capital that Chinggis Khaan founded and his son Ogedei walled in the 1230s, and the stone turtle that once marked its edge. Lunch is in town. The afternoon is free: rest at camp or ride with a local herding family. Late in the day we drive up to the hill above town, where a monument to the empires of Mongolia looks over the Orkhon valley, a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape since 2004.

   Included

   • Erdene Zuu Monastery at opening, with a local guide
   • The Karakorum Museum
   • The stone turtle of Karakorum
   • Sit-down lunch in Kharkhorin
   • The empires monument on the hill above town, late in the day
   • Horse ride with a local herding family (afternoon option)

   Easier option: Rest at camp in the afternoon.

   More active option: Ride for an hour or two with a local herding family in the Orkhon valley; included.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: Cover shoulders and knees in the temples, and walk clockwise around them.

10. Day 10: Mongol Els and on to Khustai

    Kharkhorin to Elsen Tasarkhai, then Khustai National Park

    • Drive about 4.5 h
    • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
    • Stay in Khustai National Park
    Day 10 details

    We leave Kharkhorin after breakfast on the paved road east towards Ulaanbaatar, about 285 km and four and a half hours of driving, with the last few kilometres on a dirt road into the park. That runs slightly over our four-hour cap, so we break it near halfway at Elsen Tasarkhai, where a strip of sand dunes, the Mongol Els, runs across the green steppe below Khogno Khan mountain. Walk out onto the sand, then lunch at a camp nearby. We reach Khustai National Park in the middle of the afternoon and settle into our ger camp for two nights. Khustai is where the takhi, or Przewalski's horse, often called the last wild horse, came home: it died out in the wild in the 1960s, and from 1992 horses bred in European zoos were flown here and released. Today they live in family groups across the park's hills. In the evening, when they come down to graze and drink, a park guide takes us out to find them.

    Included

    • A walk on the Elsen Tasarkhai dunes
    • Lunch on the way
    • Khustai National Park entry
    • Evening takhi viewing with a park guide
    • Dinner at the ger camp

    Activity: Takhi are wild and keep their distance; we watch from the track with binoculars, and sightings are likely but not certain.

11. Day 11: Wild horses at Khustai

    Khustai National Park, dawn to dusk

    • Drive about 1 h
    • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
    • Stay in Khustai National Park
    Day 11 details

    A slow day in one place. Early risers can go out with the park guide at first light, when the takhi are still low in the valleys and marmots sit up outside their burrows; everyone else joins after breakfast. At the visitor centre we learn how the return of the horses has worked: animals bred in zoos, flown in, kept in large enclosures to get used to the land, then let go to form their own family groups. Then we walk in the hills with the park guide, an easy loop of a couple of hours over grass and rock with wide views, looking for horses, red deer and birds of prey. Lunch is at camp, and the afternoon is free: sleep, read, or sit outside the ger and watch the light move across the steppe. In the late afternoon we drive out once more to watch the horses come down to water before dinner, our last night in a ger.

    Included

    • Dawn takhi viewing with the park guide (optional to join)
    • The Khustai visitor centre
    • Guided hill walk of about two hours
    • Late-afternoon takhi viewing
    • All meals at the ger camp

    Easier option: Watch from the vehicle and the viewpoints instead of the hill walk.

    More active option: A longer ridge walk of three to four hours with the park guide.

    Free time: Afternoon free at camp

    

12. Day 12: Back to Ulaanbaatar: Gandan and a last evening

    Khustai National Park to Ulaanbaatar

    • Drive about 2 h
    • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
    • Stay in Ulaanbaatar
    Day 12 details

    We leave Khustai after breakfast and drive about two hours east to Ulaanbaatar, a little over 100 km, back to the hotel where you left your extra luggage. After lunch we visit Gandan, the largest working monastery in Mongolia, where you can turn the prayer wheels in the courtyard and see the tall gilded statue of Migjid Janraisig in the main temple. Then the Chinggis Khaan National Museum, opened in 2022, which follows the Mongol states from the Xiongnu to the 20th century over several floors; your guide picks out the pieces that connect with what you saw at Karakorum and Ongi. The late afternoon is free for the cashmere shops or a rest. In the evening we go to a concert of Mongolian music and dance, with khoomii throat singing, contortion and the horse-head fiddle, then sit down to a farewell dinner together.

    Included

    • Lunch in Ulaanbaatar
    • Gandan Monastery with your guide
    • The Chinggis Khaan National Museum
    • An evening concert of Mongolian music, dance and throat singing
    • Farewell dinner

    Free time: Late afternoon free in Ulaanbaatar

    

13. Day 13: Depart from Ulaanbaatar

    Your hotel in Ulaanbaatar to Chinggis Khaan International Airport

    • Drive about 1 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 13 details

    Breakfast at the hotel, then the trip ends. Chinggis Khaan International Airport is about 50 km south of the city, an hour's drive and more at rush hour, and we time your transfer to fit your flight: plan to leave the hotel about three hours before an international departure. With a later flight the morning is yours. Walk to the Choijin Lama Temple Museum, a group of early 20th century temples now hemmed in by office towers, or climb the steps of Zaisan Hill for a view over the whole city and the Tuul River below it. The State Department Store and the shops around Sukhbaatar Square are the last chance for cashmere, felt slippers and other things to take home. If you would like more time in Mongolia, ask us about extra nights in Ulaanbaatar or Terelj before you fly. Your guide says goodbye at breakfast and checks that every transfer is booked.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Chinggis Khaan International Airport (UBN)

    Free time: Free until your airport transfer

    Activity: Any flight time works; the transfer is about an hour.

Wildlife and weather: June to September is the season. Gobi afternoons can pass 35 C in July, and by September nights in the desert and at Khustai can drop close to freezing. July and August bring most of the year's rain to the steppe, mostly in short showers, and wind and dust are possible in the Gobi, most often early in the season. The takhi at Khustai are seen on most visits at dusk and dawn, but no sighting is certain.

• Ulaanbaatar2 nights
• Yolyn Am1 night
• Khongoryn Els2 nights
• Bayanzag1 night
• Ongi1 night
• Kharkhorin2 nights
• Khustai National Park2 nights
• Ulaanbaatar1 night